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Canadians could benefit from Peruvian swimmer's positive test at Pan Am Games

The fate of Peruvian swimmer Mauricio Fiol — the first athlete to test positive for a banned substance at the Pan Am Games — and the silver medal he won this week in the men’s 200-metre butterfly will be determined over the next day or so.

Canadian swimmer Zack Chetrat may end up with the silver and teammate Alec Page the bronze after Fiol tested positive for the steroid Stanozolol following Tuesday’s race.

But Fiol, who has been expelled from the Athletes Village and suspended from the Games on Thursday, denied taking any banned substance.

“I am very sorry, this has been a tough day for me especially because I promote fair play,” Fiol said at his own emotional, hastily called news conference. “I apologize to my friends, my family and my country.

“I am receiving advice from the Peruvian Olympic Committee as to what I am going to do next.”

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Wearing his red and white team colours, Fiol spoke quickly and emotionally in giving a brief statement. He had checked in to the Westin Harbour Castle, where he has rented a room because he’s been ousted from the Games.

He spoke only in Spanish, his words translated for the Star by Peruvian press attache Patrick Espejo, who added the Peruvian national Olympic Committee was looking into booking the earliest possible flight home for Fiol.

Fiol’s times at the Pan Am Games had qualified him for the 2016 Olympics in Rio. He has 48 hours to challenge the result of the A-sample or face up to a four-year suspension.

ARCHERY: The women’s archery team of Virgine Chenier, Georcy-Stephanie Thiffealth Picard and Kateri Vrakking will face Columbia at 10:30 a.m. on Friday.

The men’s team of Crispin Duenas, Jay Lyon and Patrick Rivest-Bunster face Brazil at 11:30.

“I am quite excited for that,” said Lyon, the only Canadian male to survive Friday’s individual events, advancing to Saturday’s semifinal. “This is probably one of the tightest teams we’ve had for sure. I’m going to try to have my nice Rocky Balboa pep-talk with them before we start to get us going. I think both men and women have terrific chances at medals, so I’m looking forward to that.”

SHOOTING: Through four of seven days of shooting, Canadian shooters have picked up three gold medals, but they were shut out on Thursday.

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“One’s thing’s for sure, I will not be giving up my day job,” said Paul Shaw of Collingwood, who finished 17th of 19 competitors in men’s double trap qualifying. “It’s good to be here, it’s good to be participating but I’d kind of like to hit more targets.”

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